Numbers 9:16

16 So it was continually. The cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night.

Numbers 9:16 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 9:16

So it was alway
Night and day, as long as the people of Israel were in the wilderness, see ( Exodus 13:21 Exodus 13:22 ) ( Nehemiah 9:19 ) ;

the cloud covered it [by day]:
the phrase, "by day", is not in the text, but is easily and necessarily supplied from ( Exodus 40:38 ) ; and as it is in the Targum of Jonathan, and in the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and which the following clause requires:

and the appearance of fire by night;
when as a cloud it could not be because of the darkness of the night; as in the daytime it could not be discerned as a body of fire or light, because of the light of the sun; but being seen under these different forms, was serviceable both by day and night, for the following purposes.

Numbers 9:16 In-Context

14 If a foreigner lives among you, and desires to keep the Pesach to the LORD; according to the statute of the Pesach, and according to its ordinance, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the sojourner, and for him who is born in the land.'"

15 On the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the Tent of the Testimony: and at evening it was over the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until morning.

16 So it was continually. The cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night.

17 Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the children of Yisra'el journeyed; and in the place where the cloud remained, there the children of Yisra'el encamped.

18 At the mitzvah of the LORD, the children of Yisra'el journeyed, and at the mitzvah of the LORD they encamped. As long as the cloud remained on the tabernacle they remained encamped.